CertLadder
Certification Roadmap

Data Engineer

Targets senior data engineering roles on AWS. Covers the full data stack — pipelines, storage, and analytics — using AWS-native services. DEA-C01 is the capstone credential, validating pipeline design, data transformation, and analytics architecture end to end.

1224 Months$120,000–$160,000
Amazon Web Services
01

Cloud Practitioner

CLF-C02foundational
Study time
4080 hours
Exam cost
$100
$50,000–$70,000

CLF-C02 provides the AWS service awareness needed before building data pipelines. Understanding storage, compute, and networking basics makes data engineering concepts significantly clearer.

02
Study time
80120 hours
Exam cost
$150
$115,000–$145,000

SAA-C03 provides the architecture foundation for data engineering on AWS. S3, VPC, IAM, and core AWS services are covered here before you specialize in data pipeline services.

03

Data Engineer Associate

DEA-C01associate
Study time
80120 hours
Exam cost
$150
$120,000–$155,000

DEA-C01 validates your ability to design and implement data pipelines on AWS using Glue, Kinesis, Redshift, and Lake Formation. This is the core data engineering credential in the AWS ecosystem.

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